Microarray analysis of RNA isolated from TAR transfected cells using an Affymetrix human focus array identified 18 human genes that were downregulated and 14 genes that were upregulated. Further validation of four of these genes showed possible links to apoptosis and cell survival including ERCC1 (excision repair cross complementing-group 1), PIASg (protein inhibitor of acti-vated STATg), GIT2 (GPCR interacting protein) and IER3 (intermediate early response 3).
To confirm that this repression was due to miRNA and not to any secondary effect of the procedure, RT-PCR was performed on the extracted RNA to examine the mRNA levels of ERCC1 and IER3 (Fig.10C). PCR results indicated no change in the levels of mRNA for either gene. RT-PCR on RNA extracts from 293T cells transfected with TAR-D or TAR-WT RNA also indicated no change in mRNA level. These results strongly suggested that the TAR miRNA worked by repressing the translation of targeted mRNA.